principles that scarcely two writers follow the same mode of pointing sentences. Where one author or printer uses a comma, another would insert a semicolon; and where one thinks a semicolon ought to be employed, another prefers a colon; and vice versa. One teacher embarrasses the learner with an additional pause (the semicomma), by giving to it "a local habitation and a name; while a different one discards the colon altogether as a useless point. Some grammarians would unfeelingly lop off the dash, as an excrescence on a printed page; but others, again, are so partial to its form and use, as to call in its aid on every possible occasion.

The objection has, on purpose, been strongly stated. But might not similar objections be adduced against the orthography, the etymology, and the syntax, of the English language against, indeed, the general principles of English Grammar? Might it not be demonstrated, that grammarians and lexicographers differ in spelling — in pronunciation in the classification of the parts of speech in the forms of verbs -- in modes of derivation in construction and in the collocation of relatives and adverbs? Might not a plausible treatise be written on this subject, as plausible, but as illogical and unconvincing, as the common and startling objections against a system of punctuation? Might it not be shown, that Johnson and Lowth, Blair, Murray, and Crombie, have attacked the principles of others, and have had their own principles attacked in their turn? Might it not be proved, that kings and queens, statesmen and historians,

poets and essay-writers, nay, even professed grammarians, have written false English, and violated the most generally acknowledged canons of syntax? But surely it would not be a fair conclusion to draw, from this diversity of opinion, and from the employment of inelegant or incongruous English, that there are no determinate principles in the language — that there is no authority to which an appeal can be made that authors may send forth their compositions into the world, without any regard whatever to law or usage? Neither is it a legitimate conclusion to form, that, because some writers disagree in their system of pauses, and because others point their works at random, therefore punctuation is trifling-demanding no serious attention unworthy to be treated as a branch of science, or practised, with regard to principles, as an art.

The writer, then, of the present work can have no hesitation in asserting, that the art of punctuation is not more varied or less certain, in its character, than that of composition; and that its essential principles are as fixed and determinate as those canons in syntax, which, though sometimes violated by our best authors, are universally acknowledged to be indisputable. Diversities in the application of these principles will no more prove, that modes of pointing sentences are altogether arbitrary, than diversities in styles of composition will demonstrate, that the labours of grammarians to ascertain the laws of language must go for nought, and that every writer may take whatever liberties he chooses, in opposition to reputable usage. As various

modes of expressing a thought may be justifiably used, when they do not affect the principles of grammar; though, as respects beauty, elegance, or force, one mode may be preferable to another: so also different methods of pointing a sentence may be allowable, when they do not violate the fundamental laws of punctuation; though they may be objectionable or otherwise, just as they are less or more calculated to please the eye, and bring out the sense of the passage.

Perhaps one reason why punctuation has been generally undervalued or neglected, is, that grammarians have devoted so little of their attention to the subject. The treatises, too, professedly written to elucidate its principles, are, so far as have been observed by the writer of the present work, deficient either in an explanation of exceptions and difficulties in examples and exercises or in rules and remarks, illustrative of the diversified functions of the notes of interrogation and exclamation, the marks of parenthesis, the dash, the apostrophe, the hyphen, and the quotation-marks. For though these may be regarded as minor points, when compared to others of a more grammatical nature, yet they occur so frequently in sentences, that no book on punctuation, which passes them over with only a few brief and hasty remarks, can be considered practically and generally useful.

Another cause of the neglect and misapprehension to which correct punctuation is subject arises probably from the false light in which it is regarded. Many persons seem to consider points as being only the representatives

of rhetorical pauses, as showing merely those places in the utterance of a composition, in which time for breathing is required, as indicating the definite proportions of the stops made by one in reading aloud. Hence not a few writers and authors point their manuscript exactly as they themselves would recite it; and, as various kinds of composition demand a difference in their delivery, even elocutionists disagreeing as to the cessations of the voice which ought to be made in audible reading, hence also a corresponding difference in their style of punctuation. But, though it is not denied that the points are, to a very great extent, serviceable to a reader in knowing when he should pause, occasion will frequently be taken, in the course of this work, to prove that the art of punctuation is founded more on a grammatical than on a rhetorical basis; that its chief aim is to unfold the meaning of sentences, with the least trouble to the reader; and that it aids the delivery, only in so far as it tends to bring out the sense of the writer to the best advantage.

PUNCTUATION.

PUNCTUATION is the art of dividing a written or printed composition into sentences, and parts of sentences, by the use of points, for the purpose of combining such words as are united in construction, and of separating those which are distinct.

REMARK. The chief aim in pointing a discourse, and its several branches, is to develope, as clearly as possible, the meaning of the writer. A subsidiary object is to indicate to readers the different pauses of the voice which are required by an accurate pronunciation.

The principal marks used in punctuation are as follow:

REMARK. It is evident, however, to those who are conversant with the analysis of sentences into classes of words, as well as into members, clauses, and phrases, that the marks usually employed are not sufficient to indicate all the pauses required in the proper and nicely varied utterance of a written composition. But, as the art of reading well is a branch of study which comes peculiarly within the province of the rhetorician and the elocutionist, it may be sufficient generally to observe, that, with the exception of the rhetorical stops,

The Comma represents the shortest pause; the Semicolon admits of a pause greater than that of a comma; while the Colon requires a longer cessation of the voice than either; and the Period is, what its name denotes, a full stop, which terminates a sentence.

REMARK.-In order fully to understand the true nature of the points, and to determine their proper application, the learner must have just ideas of the expressions which are used relative to Punctuation, and which will often occur in this little work. These ideas may be obtained by a careful perusal of the following definitions respecting a sentence, and the portions into which it is capable of being analysed.

B